A 1990 Cyberpunk-inspired Mazda Miata has won the Australia and New Zealand round of the Hot Wheels Legends Tour.

Hot Wheels, the world's leading toy brand known for die-cast cars, held a competition to find the best vehicle to turn into a 1:64 version.

The winner was built by New Zealander Chris Watson and named “The Cyberpunk”. It will now enter into the Global Semi-Final with a chance to go against winners from around the world for the ultimate title of becoming a real-life Hot Wheels car.

Initially entering the competition in 2021, Chris went back to the drawing board and absolutely stunned the judges this year, raising a lot of excitement and bringing smiles to their faces. 

Chris said, “Everything on this car has been hand-made by me in my shed in rural Northland”. 

“I started out by designing the ‘Kaido Racer’' inspired fender flares along with my own 15x10j turbofan wheels. From here I’ve been constantly evolving it over the years and the latest additions have been the custom fastback and carbon fibre shark fin spoiler and the cyberpunk rear light bar.”

The inspiration for this car comes from the cyberpunk genre with sources like Blade Runner, Akira, and Ghost in the Shell. 

Chris airbrushed the whole car to give it a dystopian, weathered appearance and will be using 3D printing to add more cyberpunk elements to make it feel like it belongs in a movie or a video game.

The search for the best custom cars saw an impressive panel of judges, including rally champion Molly Taylor, Kiwi motorsport royalty Mad Mike Whiddett and Lincoln Whiddett, visual artist JESWRI and Hot Wheels designer Kevin Cao. They provided invaluable insights into the selection process and picking the final winner. 

The judges were on the lookout for the most exceptional and innovative designs that exemplify the spirit of Hot Wheels.

‘Mad’ Mike says he loved Watson’s Mazda. “The fact that the MX5 [Miata] is such an attainable car in real life shows the way you can execute things, with the basic tools, in your shed. It just makes it enjoyable and makes people smile,” he said.

His son Lincoln (13) is an up-and-coming off-road racer who became a Hot Wheels ambassador at age seven.

“I would definitely pick this off the shelf if it was a Hot Wheels,” said Lincoln.

“It’s very creative and I've never seen anything in that style… We’ve seen this before on Hot Wheels Legends Tour, it's definitely changed since I saw it, it's evolved. I really like the cyberpunk feel.” 

As for Cao, he says, “It speaks to a whole new generation of car enthusiasts and drives two audiences: the hardcore car people and the gamers and sci-fi movie fans too.”